In an article published today in the Wall Street Journal, recent findings of a pilot study conducted by researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the Arkansas Children’s Hospital show that a handful of children with severe peanut allergies can now eat peanuts without worry. Scientists and doctors have spent years retraining the children’s bodies by feeding them very tiny amounts of the food that endangered them.

The process is time intensive and tricky. You should not try this at home! Millions of Americans have food allergies. Peanut allergy is considered the most dangerous, with life-threatening reactions possible from trace amounts. It accounts for most of the 30,000 emergency-room visits and as many as 200 deaths attributed to food allergies each year. Although some children outgrow peanut allergy, that is a rare occurrence among the severely affected.

More rigorous research must be completed before this treatment becomes available to more allergy sufferers. However, if this oral therapy continues to work as an effective treatment, the approach could mark a major advance in the battle against peanut allergies.